SRP (Sistema de Registro de Preços)

Where the SRP now sits in law

The SRP is one of the auxiliary procedures listed in art. 78 of Lei 14.133/2021 and is set out in arts. 82 to 86. Federally it is regulated by Decreto 11.462/2023, which replaced the old-law regime for procedures published from 30 December 2023 onwards; atas formed under Decreto 7.892/2013 remain governed by it for the rest of their validity (Decreto 11.462/2023, art. 38).

An ata de registro de preços is defined as a binding, obligational document with the character of a commitment to future contracting, recording the object, the prices, the suppliers, the participating bodies and the conditions to be applied.

How an ata is formed

The procedure is normally a pregão or a concorrência, and the judgment criterion must be menor preço or maior desconto against a market price table (art. 82, V). Direct contracting may also be used to form an ata where regulation permits and more than one body is being served (art. 82, para. 6).

Before launching, the managing body must run a public intenção de registro de preços (IRP), open for at least 8 working days, so that other bodies can join as participants and the total estimated quantity can be fixed (art. 86). This step can be dispensed with only where the managing body is the sole contracting party.

The edital must state the maximum quantity of each item that may be acquired, the minimum quantity that must be quoted, the conditions for altering registered prices, the possibility of registering more than one supplier at the winner's price, and the grounds for cancelling the ata (art. 82). Registering prices with no total quantity is allowed only in narrow cases, such as a first procurement of the object, perishable food, or a service integrated with a supply of goods, and in those cases no other body may join the ata (art. 82, paras. 3 and 4).

Validity and the commitment it creates

The ata is valid for one year, counted from the first working day after its publication on the PNCP, and may be extended once by an equal period where the price is shown to remain advantageous (art. 84; Decreto 11.462/2023, art. 22). Two years is therefore the ceiling. Adding quantities to a registered item is prohibited (Decreto 11.462/2023, art. 23).

The commitment runs one way. Registered prices oblige the supplier to supply on the registered conditions, but do not oblige the administration to buy, and it may run a separate tender if it gives reasons (art. 83). This is the single most important commercial fact about the SRP: a place on an ata is an option granted to the buyer, not a guaranteed volume.

If the registered price rises above the market, the managing body will call the supplier to negotiate a reduction; a supplier that declines is released from the item without penalty (Decreto 11.462/2023, art. 26). Prices may be altered only in the limited circumstances of art. 25 of the decree, such as force majeure, tax changes, or a reajustment clause foreseen in the edital.

Carona: still available, now bounded

A body that did not take part in the IRP may adhere to an existing ata as a non-participant, but must justify the advantage of doing so, demonstrate that the registered values remain compatible with the market, and obtain the prior consent of both the managing body and the supplier (art. 86, para. 2). Once authorised, the adhering body has 90 days to place its order, within the ata's validity (Decreto 11.462/2023, art. 31).

Two caps apply. A single adhering body may not exceed 50 per cent of the quantities registered for the managing and participating bodies, and adhesions in aggregate may not exceed twice the registered quantity of each item, however many bodies adhere (art. 86, paras. 4 and 5; Decreto 11.462/2023, art. 32).

The direction of adhesion is also restricted. Federal bodies may not adhere to an ata managed by a state, district or municipal body (art. 86, para. 8). Lei 14.770/2023 clarified the permitted directions: federal, state, district and municipal bodies may adhere to a federal, state or district ata, and municipal bodies may adhere to another municipality's ata provided the SRP was formalised through a licitação (art. 86, para. 3). Exceptions to the aggregate cap exist for emergency purchases of medicines and medical-hospital consumables from atas managed by the Ministry of Health, and for adhesions required as a condition of federal voluntary transfers.

The federal tooling

Federal price-registration procedures are conducted in SRP digital, and registered quantities, balances, adhesion requests and quantity transfers are controlled in Gestão de Atas; both are modules of Compras.gov.br provided by SEGES/MGI (Decreto 11.462/2023, arts. 2, 5 and 24). SEGES may cede the use of SRP digital to bodies of any federative level by termo de acesso (art. 6). The ata itself is one of the documents that must be published on the PNCP (art. 174, para. 2, IV).

What a supplier should price

Because the buyer holds an option and the caps limit how far adhesions can inflate volume, the registered price should be set against a realistic expectation of call-offs rather than against the headline maximum quantity. The maximum quantity per item is disclosed in the edital, and the aggregate ceiling on adhesions gives the outer bound: twice the registered quantity.

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